1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates generally to quality assurance, and in particular, to quality assurance in complex networks.
2. The Prior Art
The cost of network downtime, as measured in lost productivity, lost revenue and lost customer good will, is increasing rapidly in both enterprise and service provider environments, where networks continue to increase in complexity. In fact, network availability is now a key critical success factor in many organizations. Availability measurements may be classified into two broad categories: hardware device failure measurements and the measurement of acceptable performance levels from the customer's point of view.
This drive towards higher availability requirements has driven the need for availability measurement of increasingly complex networks found in modern enterprises. Moreover, the identification of network availability as a critical success factor when coupled with service level agreements has further driven the need for the availability measurement of complex network systems.